As the younger of the two guardsponies, Spark Impulse had always tried valiantly to put up with how his youth garnered him unwanted attention. Like being called sparky, which he hated, and being given dumb assignments because, really how could a small, young pegasus handle anything real?
Spark wasn't sure how real this assignment was either. Escort a very young filly who by all accounts was possessed by an aged spellcaster of unknown power to a dead body. His cutie mark of a shield, representing his loyalty to duty and the kingdom, was surrounded by seven stars. He was no unicorn but he knew magic. Could almost taste it in the air; knew what spells had just been unleashed, although he could never sense them ahead of time like the unicorns could.
But there was no magic here. Not that he could tell, and he didn't know what spells would call for chalk and whiskey anyway. The invaders didn't use magic either so far as ever he had heard.
Sprintpoint bought various edibles from the massive collection of cold hard cash the treasurer had thrown at them. They were supposed to be on sabbatical from the war but apparently the little filly wanted to find a dead body. Of an invader. Who could cast magic.
They returned, and the a party started toward the farm of the unicorn's missing friend. Just the purple mare and the mauve filly, in fact although the offwhite unicorn seemed upset to stay, even for a little while.
His partner this tour, Sprintpoint, looked at the small light on the small unicorn as he too walked alongside them. Then he looked up at the clouds. "Fighting must have moved close, eh Sparky?" After this proclamation he leapt into the air and from a height of perhaps forty feet, performed a very small reconnaissance mission. Very small.
Once his hooves were on the ground again Spark Impluse spoke a response. "Looks clear tho, Pointy?" which at least earned a very harsh stare, his partner nearly giving himself whiplash from turning so quick to glare.
The cute one, a deeper purple and a mare worth asking out for coffee, seemed oblivious to the repartee. "I'd heard from the unicorn division that the small band of scouts had been driven back. So magically lacking or not Sweetie ... Jack" She stopped mid-sentence, and Spark looked away from the brush to see why.
The filly, whose name was Jack for some unfathomable crisis of parentage, had deep red sclera. The eyes were still green but it looked like some Christmas ornament had been shoved into her head.
The filly started with her voice. She obviously came from a horribly dysfunctional family to talk like that. It gave him the creeps honestly, and the sudden eye change didn't help him keep his skin from crawling out from under his saddlebags any.
"I will watch the undergrowth. I can see body heat now." They were all trotting, but Spark wanted to stash his suddenly cold hide under some bush until this thing went away. Duty called however, and he just kept pace. At least that motherly type of yellow pony had stayed back with the dragon. She would probably be retching with fear about now, or so he thought to himself.
Sprintpoint didn't seem fazed in the slightest. "Sparky did you catch that spell with that nose of yours?" his blue eyes never left the creepy mauve filly. The mare hadn't exactly straightened her neck either.
"No Pointy. No spell. None." But he tested the air again. There was a small levitation spell, and illumination spell, well ahead of them. Somewhere in the orchard. Probably farm workers he guessed. Nothing from the grown or ungrown fillies between them. Spark Impulse could think of no reason for the eye-change.
Fortunately the filly didn't say anything about her vision showing her anything in the bushes. Didn't say anything at all which was fine with him. They arrived at the barn, and found no bodies. Blood, torn wood, and other signs of recent struggle. The mare's horn glowed. It was a form of searching spell but didn't taste right for looking for inanimate things.
Twilight Sparkle explained to the group "I can't find any bidepals by magic and I think I can reach 80 meters with that spell." She looked around for the filly.
The little one was making a quick once around, like she was the scout. "I see them but they are at least a quarter mile off. Four, I think. That means they've eaten their own unless something changed their mind." She nosed in a direction. Then blinked.
Her white sclera back, she excused herself and went into the barn. Spark could smell small location spells, and a few levitation spells. He obediently took up guard position to one side of the door. "Creepy as hay." Logic notwithstanding of that concept Sprintpoint took up the other side of the door. He didn't want to go in either though he didn't look as rattled as Spark felt.
"I'm sure there's a logical explanation. Too bad though all the whiskey is for her spell. You know?"
Normally any reference to liquor would catch his attention. But in about the direction the creepy filly had pointed to, he smelled a small teleport spell. Bringing a sphere of ponies to a MUCH closer distance. "Miss Twilight? You should hide. I think it's just farmworkers but if it's not you better not be in mêlée range."
The purple mare put a shield spell on herself as Sprint, having not heard this before since it just happened, quickly drew a shortsword from his saddle bag. Spark drew his own, and smelled another spell from in front of them.
Then they exited the orchard. Seemingly coming from thin air there were no fewer than nine of the monstrous things. Like some unwanted mixup between an angry griffin and an ugly diamond dog. Pointy faces and tall ears erect they strode slowly, but not any air of hesitation in their movements. The lead started growling at them. Most, he'd learned, couldn't speak anything anypony knew.
But he could spell. A rock floated up to his waiting claws. Spark could feel cold sweat dripping down his neck already. This would be his last battle. Twilight was hiding in the barn hopefully with that filly. Poor little girl would hopefully never know why she died.
From within the barn came a loud barking. Light, airy like a summer breeze but the tones themselves were harsh like razorwire through a colt's throat. The lead griffondog stopped, its tail swishing quickly, then stilled. Three behind him drew their crude stone axes. At least they didn't have enough double-swords to equip their whole army. Most of the pegasi losses had been to double swords thrown like oversized boomerangs as these monsters were crazy-strong and simply too stupid to feel pain.
The leader barked back, and it was Sprintpoint who figured it out first. "That thing inside the filly can speak their language!" And this time when an answer came, he could tell that was indeed what he'd heard. The creepy filly was giving them orders or something. She was coming out now, standing in the doorway. No magic yet but her horn was glowing, a spell readied. Spark wouldn't know until it was cast but had a few hopes. Mostly he hoped she would go back inside and wait.
No luck. Standing as tall as her small form allowed she called in English. "Who will stand up to me? I take your form, your tongue, and your weapons." She reared up, and dropped. Nothing fancy and no magic he could smell. The horn was still readied but the axes fell apart. Not that they were that unmenacing with bare claws and teeth. But how?
The weaponless bipeds mumbled, and their leader tipped his head, just enough to acknowledge but not enough to lose two-eyed distance vision of his next snack. More words in their tongue, and now the filly reared high, staring at the sky. When her hooves clashed with the soil beneath, a lightning bolt came of of those thin, forgotten clouds above them all. A big bolt, and by all rights it should have knocked them all flying.
But the invaders just dropped, held their ground. The one standing was solid black, and smoking. As dead as if he'd been turned to stone. As the invaders tensed to run at them, she cast a levitation spell. Nothing more, just some sandy parts of the soil. Spark could smell that each grain of sand was held in a separate spell. One by one the spells were forgotten, and at that instant one of the attackers lost his head.
The whole head. Blown off faster and farther than if they'd been kicked by the heaviest bucking soldier who had a running start and solid-plate shoes. This was not magic of the pony kind.
But they were too ... something, to slow down. Three left, and the filly called "Twilight Sparkle pick the lead one up! He can cast I want him!"
The shield spell dropped, he could tell. Now a big levitation spell as the leader was helplessly held in the air. He screamed and thrashed while the filly charged. All Spark Impulse could shout in consternation was "What the HAY?!?" but she was past, running to her slow death at their claws.
The guards ran after her, but it turned out they weren't needed after all. Now three left, and as the creepy filly stared at each one, their nose oozed blood, and they dropped, never to move again.
Whatever non-pony magic the filly wielded, it had winded her something fierce. She looked now like she was going to pass out, and the casting creature ... was throwing small fireballs now, and while the mare was shaking him to keep his aim off this wouldn't last for long. Sword in mouth he charged but the first slash hit almost hurtlessly across it's elbow.
Something knocked him off his hooves completely. The filly was screaming "No! You fool!" but Spark couldn't hear as he impacted the barn, knocking the wind out of him. He had just enough presence of mind to deploy his wings so he didn't land on his own blade, which was somewhere below him. He didn't have presence of mind to adapt to the extra weight in his packs which he'd never had a chance to drop, however. He landed practically on his head, and knew no more for some time to come.
- - - - - - - - -
Twilight Sparkle was getting worried. She had enough magical energy in her to hold this thing aloft for another ten minutes if there was need but this was in effect an evil unicorn, and shaking it to keep it off balance was not going to last forever. Already he'd thought of lobbing a few offensive spells to fortunately little effect though AJ would be terrified of a forest fire right here.
Sweetie Belle violently protected her prize, hopefully not injuring the brash young guard but Spark Impulse wasn't getting up, either.
About the time the impetuous guard pony landed with a thump, there was a blast of the most powerful magic ... it seemed to stop the spell caster's magic, a nullification spell, but did not cause her own levitation to falter.
Cautiously she hazarded a glance, and found a formation of four unicorns. White, and in guard armor, but every one had orange eyes.
Blood orange. Fidikken; known as death-ponies.
Still panting, no longer standing, she heard Sweetie Belle try to greet them. "It's safe, your majesty as that one above me is the last that will walk." Majesty? Twilight looked again but saw only the four guardsponies who looked ready to dish out the death of their namesake. But no others.
The other guard, who had figured out what was going on, sheathed his blade and announced to apparently no one in particular, "I concur your highness there is only one opponent left in the air, just there.
The fidikken all looked very briefly at each other, the one in the front right nodded with just an ear tip, and all four cast a spell. There had been an invisibility spell and no one less than the princess herself was in the center!
Twilight tried desperately to bow but decided concentrating on holding the prisoner aloft was more pressing at the moment. Thus it was not until Spike came running to her she realized that Spike and Rarity were inside the invisibility spell too.
Rarity ran to her little sister, who huffed and puffed a warning of sorts. "It's not done, dear Rarity. I'm not your sister." And standing, she re-cast her holding spell on the prisoner but it wasn't to keep him from flailing. A little confused Twilight watched as suddenly the thing's tail began to flail like a swarm of bees, his arms struggling aimlessly for any purchase, his whole manner losing any kind of focus.
Also, he stopped shouting obscenities in his foreign language.
Presently Jack/Sweetie Belle asked Twilight how much longer she could hold this one. But it was Rarity that, having swept up her sister's body in a tight embrace regardless of the occupant, demanded the right to help.
"It'll get a bit ugly. You just need to hold him so he can't grab anything. And that's it." Little Jack was concentrating, burning through the small filly's magical supply with whatever was holding the sergal silent.
Almost cooing at the show of violence, Princess Celestia asked "And, you're going to just strangle this one to death? That's. Cruel, don't you think?"
Jack had to mumble, losing physical as well as magical energy as this progressed. "Need him very dead, need the body very good. Rarity? Into the barn with him but if you can hold him afloat you needn't look. Probably shouldn't."
Looking very uncomfortable, she nevertheless positioned herself beside the still unconscious pegasus, and levitated the sergal behind her, into the barn somewhere. Sweetie Belle followed quietly, still hanging on to the skin, preventing any air flow to happen.
The spell transferred, Twilight's emotions caught up with her and she ran to her teacher heedless of the deathponies that might misconstrue her actions and burn her in an instant. Too much violence, too close to home, just too much.
The fidikken must have known this mare had permission to approach the royal presence, even on an unsecured battle scene. Teacher and student embraced, and Celestia apologized for putting Twilight through such experiences. "It doesn't even help that they started it, does it? Young ponies like you aren't supposed to know about death. But Nadsipply can be a great power to stem the tide and I guess you just get to go along."
Twilight just cried, and talked about her missing friends, and never noticed the fidikken started to look ever so slightly nervous.
There was a loud thump inside the barn, and Twilight looked up to see Rarity listening to the barn, then calling out to ask who had the chalk, and could they bring it to her baby sister?
Twilight followed her teacher, who was following the now recovered guard pegasus and everyone else, inside the barn where Sweetie Belle was levitating a piece of chalk, drawing a perfect circle around the unmoving sergal. When she set the chalk down, her horn was still glowing. She, Jack, must have been maintaining the airlock spell, just to be extra careful.
"Your highness Princess Celestia, I have regained the greater majority of my memories. I am named Jack Chipple, and I can soon cast the needed magic to transfer myself into this about to become deceased Sergal caster." Sweetie Belle didn't bow, but at least she seemed appropriately reverent in tone. "And Rarity did you bring the other things on my list?"
The well groomed unicorn nodded grimly, and without ever letting her eyes fall on the body in the center of that circle pulled from her bag various herbs, vegetables, and spices, placing them all just inside the circle. Twilight heard disgust color the fashion designer's voice. "Are you planning on cooking a stew for the enemy? Honestly I just don't get this." But there was a tear in her eye when she looked at what was supposed to be her baby sister.
Royal presence apparently forgotten, Sweetie Belle just started walking carefully around her chalk circle. After one full pass she started chanting. Or at least Twilight thought that's what she was hearing but it sounded more like if Fluttershy's poison-joke deep voice was occupied in tuneless humming. On the third pass, she began to raise her head, high up then drop it down, always maintaining the same pace. Up for two strides, down for either two or three strides, then back up, and down. Then the ingredients all seemed to turn to steam, or more nearly they grew an unearthly mane like the regents had -- flowing, opaque, almost living as they grew and swirled, converging on the dead sergal.
A fourth pass, and now Sweetie Belle stopped. She faced the sergal, and rising high on her hind legs she shouted her deep, tuneless humming. The barn thrummed with the power of her voice and the sergal began to levitate although Twilight couldn't see any glow of pony magic.
She dropped down, and seemed to be injured by the impact of hooves on dirt. She walked stiffly now, uncoordinated. At the center she touched her horn, now glowing brightly, to the belly of the intended host.
Several things happened at once, and it would be some time later before Twilight could piece them all together. The wisps of living ingredients leapt into the host, the former soldier. Sweetie Belle collapsed, and the sergal fell on top of her.
Also, it went dark. As if this spell sucked down not just the mane of the carrots and parsley, but the light itself.
There was a scream, and the light came back to reveal a sergal, struggling to rise, and a small, terrified young filly striving for all her worth to free herself from the considerable bulk holding her down.
The princess whispered something Twilight didn't catch to a nearby body guard, who lept forward to levitate the sergal. Sweetie Belle cried out for Rarity, who replied with an "Over here!" and Twilight didn't follow that any farther.
The sergal was dropped, and the fidikken crowded to the circle's edge, horns glowing as their spells were readied. The Princes called out to him, "If you can say your name, I'll be happy to accept that as my answer."
The Sergal rose up, elbows straight now but legs tangled and ignored. Drawing in a ragged breath he tried to bring his head up, looking the Princess in the eye before letting his head drop again. One more ragged breath and he spoke, although aimed at the floor in that gravel voice that could barely eununciate, that Twilight had heard some time before. "Princess Celestia, I." And here he brought his right hand to touch claw to eyebrow in a mock salute. Several short breaths later and he continuned "Am out of breath, milady." And promptly collapsed into a heap, flat and breathing loudly.
The lead fidikken, now middle-right, said over his shoulder "It was at least English, your highness."
The princess sighed, and replied "Best to wait a time. We need to be correct at this delicate junction."
When the sergal's claws glowed with pony magic Twilight almost blasted him but she would have needed to move, to get around the fidikken. Who were unmoving, their same spells still readied. She decided to let them take the first blow.
The unearthly mane grew again from the two bottles of liquor which, oddly, did not seem to be going down in volume but they seemed more watered down, less amber in color now. The mane again sucked quickly into the sergal, but no further effect was seen.
And the sergal blinked repeatedly, and breathed carefully, fully. And just as deliberately he sat up, tried to sit cross legged but seemed angry at his tail's interference. Turning now to the alicorn he asked "I'm sorry milady. What was your question?" She graciously repeated herself and the fatigued sergal tried to bow with just his head. "I am known as Jack Chipple, milady." And his smile revealed sharp, blood stained teeth.
Maybe that's what he said. It could have been Nadsipply or maybe he was just clearing his throat. A part of Twilight could never really be convinced she wasn't hallucinating the words. It still sounded like Stack Pimple to her, personally.
But the fidikken stood down, and the princess explained the reason for her personal travel into such dangerous territory. "There's a permanent door nearby. Like a teleportation spell but lets anypony walk through. Do you understand? I can make these but they're not so solid feeling, and I can't for the life of me see where the other end of the door is. I want you to help me close it."
Jack nodded. "I will help." He stood up, and looked like he was going to fall again. "But I may wish to wait a time. My pardon for incongruity, but these sergal can only digest fresh meat. May I steal one of the fallen?"
Sweetie Belle, bless her two-toned mane, speaking now with her customary speech patterns, blurted out "You're going to cannibalize your own people?"
The grin widened as he turned to his former body and carrier, who wrapped up in her big sisters hooves. "You would have me eat fallen ponies to avoid that conundrum? I am too weak to hunt for simple animals."
Celestia asked for tactical advice of her body guards with the word "Well?" The fidikken looked briefly to the pegasi, who both shrugged. The fidikken passed that shrug up the line until Celestia had her answer. "Yes, but please consider your audience. Namely, that you should have the distance not to have one."
Now Jack's mouth hung open in a loll, the biggest grin he could hold as his tongue, dog-like, rolled and lolled in silent laughter. He let himself out, stumbling as he went, and Twilight shifted her focus to the other unicorns to make sure they were as OK as they could be.